Discussion

Roasting a chicken tonight

I've been looking at recipes online and they are super confusing about the temp and time to roast a whole chicken. Seriously, they range from 325 and 30 min a pound to 400 and 1.5 hours or 2 hours-- for the same size bird!

The chicken I have is 4 lbs. I don't want to spend all night cooking this thing, so I am leaning towards going for a higher temp. Maybe 375-400?

Any suggestions? I am going basic, just some unsalted butter on the skin and an onion and sprig of rosemary on the inside.

High heat gives you that crispy crust on the skin. Since I've used the Zuni chicken technique, I haven't gone back to any other one. It calls for a dry brine for a day or two (but you have to omit this part). Here's the recipe:

I roasted a 4.5 pound chicken last night in about 50 minutes (maybe a little extra time due to combination of a sip of red wine and a cough that resulted in spattering on the cream walls, seemingly permanent at this point). Our tried and true method - 20 minutes at 550, 30 at 425. Perfect every time. I slathered this one w/ olive oil, then, for good measure, since some soft butter was right there in front of me, slathered on some of that. The crispiest skin ever. Stuffed the bird with some leftover lemon and onion quarters, a couple of garlic cloves, thyme and rosemary, salt and pepper. Voila - dinner in less than an hour.

Edit - this was my husband's tried and true method for many years, but I refused to go along w/ it, and made roasted chickens many other ways, turning, etc., but these come out perfect.